only to read but also how and what to read, and tended to make the results of even a brief elementary education deep and permanent. [Illustration: CENTRAL PUBLIC LIBRARY, NOTTINGHAM.] The library movement made most headway in the northern counties and the midlands; the southern towns were slow in coming in. Scotland also was late in adopting the Acts--a curious fact, probably due to the way Scotland is used to the private endowment of public foundations. The Scots are frugal and saving; but no people are so generous in works for the common weal. Hence it is not difficult to understand the reluctance of Glasgow to saddle itself with a library rate, when it already had its Baillie’s Institution and Stirling’s Library, and the Mitchell Library was coming--it actually came in 1877. Edinburgh also rejected the Acts, obviously on similar grounds, until in 1886 an offer of £50,000 from Andrew Carnegie induced the city to change its mind, at first however, levying only a halfpenny rate. Ireland was very much behindhand. The following table shows the relative rate of growth, down to 1909, of public libraries established under the Acts; it does not include a number provided by voluntary agencies or under special legislation.[3] England. Wales. Scotland Ireland. Totals. 1840-1849 1 -- -- -- 1 1850-1859 18 -- 1 1 20 1860-1869 12 1 1 -- 14 1870-1879 38 5 5 -- 48 1880-1889 51 5 9 5 70 1890-1899 121 17 15 8 161 1900-1909 125 29 42 12 208 --------------------------------------------------- 366 57 73 26 522 ---------------------------------------------------